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Israeli Court Rejects the Ghaith-Sub Laban Petition, Orders their Eviction in 45 Days! The Israeli District Court rejected on the 11th of October the petition submitted by the Ghaith-Sub Laban family against their eviction from their house in the Old Cit

Israeli Court Rejects the Ghaith-Sub Laban Petition, Orders their Eviction in 45 Days! The Israeli District Court rejected on the 11th of October the petition submitted by the Ghaith-Sub Laban family against their eviction from their house in the Old Cit

The Israeli District Court rejected on the 11th of October the petition submitted by the Ghaith-Sub Laban family against their eviction from their house in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem which was issued in September 2014 by the Israeli Magistrate’s Court. The District Court further ordered the family to be evicted from their house within 45 days from issuing the decision in addition to paying a fine of 10,000 shekels (2500 USD).

In its decision, the Israeli District Court favored the settlers allegations against the family and accepted their accounts that the Ghaith-Sub Laban family has never lived in their house. This notion was based solely on the testimonies of the same settlers who are trying to have the family evicted. The Court accepted these baseless allegations against the family although the Ghaith-Sub Laban family has been living in their house for long years. The Court decided that the family has violated their protected tenancy status based on the settlers claims in addition to the fact that family installed an air conditioning device in their house without a permit!

Rejecting the family’s appeal and ordering their eviction comes in a time in which Jerusalem is witnessing a brutal campaign of oppression against Palestinians in East Jerusalem and especially in the Old City. These policies come as part of Israel’s practices of collective punishment and displacement against Palestinians in the occupied territory. The Court’s decision further confirms that Palestinians cannot seek any form of justice before Israeli courts that merely legalize occupation and give a legal cover to Israel’s violations and oppression against Palestinians. International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law both protect Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and consider Israel’s policies of forced displacement of Palestinians to be a war crime and grave breach of international norms.

The Ghaith-Sub Laban family has been the subject of repeated attempts by Israel and by settler organizations to evict the family and force them to leave their house. These attempts date back to as early as the 1970s when Israeli authorities banned the site family from holding necessary maintenance works to the house. Furthermore, Israeli settlers blocked the main entrance to the family’s house in the early 1980s thus preventing them from physically accessing their house. Despite all these attempts the family has fought for their right to remain in their house for over 20 years before Israeli courts. Israeli authorities have attempted once more to have the family evicted in 2010 after granting ownership of the house to an Israeli settler organization which claims the house is an old Jewish consecrated property. The settler organization has appealed to have the family evicted in 2010 claiming the family does not live there. In their opinion, the house should be inhabited by a Jewish family and not a Palestinian Muslim family. The same settler organization has managed over the years to evict several Palestinian families in the Old City of Jerusalem and place Israeli settlers in their place.